by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

The elder Booker was 76 years old and recently suffered a stroke, according to the Democrat's campaign. Cary Booker also suffered from Parkinson's disease.

The death comes as Cory Booker enters the final stretch of his campaign for the U.S. Senate against Republican Steve Lonegan. Voters will go to the polls Oct. 16 to elect a successor to the late Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat.

The candidate canceled his campaign events for the rest of the day. He had been scheduled to attend a rally with state Sen. Barbara Buono, who is running for New Jersey governor.

Cary and Carolyn Booker, the mayor's parents, were among the first black executives at IBM in the 1960s and active in the civil rights movement.

For a time they lived in Washington, where youngest son Cory was born. The Bookers moved the family (the mayor has an older brother named Cary) to the predominantly white suburb of Harrington Park in Bergen County. Cory Booker's campaign website says housing rights activists helped his parents buy their first home after they were initially turned down because of the color of their skin.

Cary Booker was raised by a single mother in North Carolina. A statement from city of Newark spokesman James Allen said Mayor Booker's father "was an inspiration to him and someone the mayor has often credited with being a principal reason for him entering public service."

As a child, the mayor told The Star-Ledger in Newark that he listened to tapes of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy that his dad had made. At the 50th anniversary of King's March on Washington this summer, Booker recounted what his father used to say to him about the struggles of African Americans.

"My father when I was growing up said it very simply," Booker said. "He used to look at me and say, 'Boy, don't you dare walk around here like you hit a triple, 'cause you were born on third base. You are enjoying freedoms, opportunity, technology, things that were given to you bought by the struggle and the sacrifices and the work of those who came before. ... Don't forget where you come from."